Around the World in 80 Books

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of our World Eco-fiction Series, I present "Around the World in 80 Books: A Guide to Ecological and Climate Themes in Fiction," an article at Medium.com. Themes include harsh survival, advocacy, veneration of the world around us, the slow apocalypse, the haunted, the weird, and the psychological. It's an eclectic and diverse range of stories, set around the world, on every continent. Also, Dragonfly is blending the original spotlight on climate change authors with the newer world fiction series, now that these similar author spotlights are on the same domain.

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Countdown, Carol Fiore

Polar ice caps are melting. Whole ecosystems are being destroyed. Wildlife is being carelessly slaughtered. Eighteen-year-old Skye Van Bloem didn’t create the environmental crisis facing our planet, but she’s angry about it. What upsets her the most is that with the exception of her two best friends hardly anyone else on Earth seems to care.

Polar ice caps are melting. Whole ecosystems are being destroyed. Wildlife is being carelessly slaughtered.

Eighteen-year-old Skye Van Bloem didn't create the environmental crisis facing our planet, but she’s angry about it. What upsets her the most is that with the exception of her two best friends hardly anyone else on Earth seems to care.

But Skye's about to discover that she's not alone. A race of technologically advanced aliens called Beholders have offered the animals of Earth a chance to determine the fate of the biggest threat facing the planet: humanity itself. According to an unlikely emissary from the animal world—a snarky prairie dog—only Skye can convince them that humans can change and start protecting the environment instead of destroying it.

Now, nothing is as it seemed. As Skye’s adventures take her from the mountains of Colorado to the forests and fiords of New Zealand, she’s not sure who she can trust—her own grandmother, new friends, strange animal guides, or the handsome Beholder who just might be in love with her. But Skye’s biggest worry is herself: can someone as skeptical of humankind as she is become their greatest champion?

Quotes

Ursula Le Guin is so important, because she pushed the idea that science fiction, or speculative fiction, can be a space for being really thoughtful, and for really exploring ideas. And also for daring to imagine a version of us that is better—and, in some ways, worse—than our present selves. I think she was unmatched. She was a great novelist, and a great evangelist for the novel. Earthsea is a huge influence, as is The Dispossessed. –Marlon James